LONGMONT -- Longmont has a new set of oil and gas regulations, including a restriction on drilling in residential zones.

That restriction survived a 4-3 City Council vote Tuesday night, shortly before the rules as a whole were adopted 5-2. Councilwomen Katie Witt and Bonnie Finley had pushed for the residential restriction to be eliminated, saying the city would be sued and would lose and that few if any residential areas were in danger.

"Should we try to go through the brick wall? I say no," said Witt, who was also joined by Councilman Gabe Santos in voting to drop the limit. "It's not a ditch I want to die in."

But Councilman Brian Bagley called the restriction the "heart and soul" of the new regulations, while others said it was part of the city's power to zone. If so few areas are affected, Councilman Alex Sammoury asked, why would the state or the industry want to sue at all?

Sammoury also dryly thanked the Colorado Oil and Gas Association for the phone calls he said several residents received last week, saying that he was allied with the anti-fracking movement. Not only did several of those calls go to his friends, he said, but one went to his wife.

"I don't need your help getting in trouble with my wife," he said, chuckling. " I can do that on my own."

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The new regulations are the first update of Longmont's oil and gas rules since 2000. Among other things, the rules forbid drilling in a residential zone, but allow a driller to ask for an exception if that would make it impossible to access their mineral rights.

Santos said that despite opposing the restriction, he agreed with 99 percent of what was in the new rules. He joined Bagley, Sammoury, Councilwoman Sarah Levison and Mayor Dennis Coombs in voting for the regulations.

"I have heartburn on one thing," Santos said. "And tomorrow the sun will rise. And the sun will set. Whether we vote for this or not, life goes on."

Sammoury emphasized that the new rules were not a total ban on hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," but that they re-emphasized the city's land use authority.

The council also voted 6-1 to approve a contract with oil and gas company TOP Operating, and 7-0 to approve a related operating agreement. As proposed, the deal would allow 11 multi-well drilling sites on public land but also would hold TOP to several conditions, including mandatory water monitoring and a 750-foot separation between their wells and any occupied buildings. Closing is scheduled for 90 days after council approval.; the restrictions will apply to any TOP facilities inside Longmont.

As part of the 6-1 vote, the council also approved shutting down the Rider well. The well near Trail Ridge Middle School was part of the early impetus for tougher oil and gas rules, after it was shown that excessive benzene levels had been reported on the property.

In addition to buying the 36 acres of land, the city will pay $25,000 cash to shut down the well and $850,000 from future oil and gas royalties for the cost of drilling a new site east of County Line Road. Levison was the sole vote against the shutdown, saying the price was more than she could take.

"I can't swallow that amount of money," she said. "I think it's important to close the well. But I just have to say -- it's a lot of money. ... We are buying a piece of land that nobody else will touch."

Public works director Dale Rademacher noted that if the well stayed, it could be re-fracked by TOP at any time. This would close the chapter, he said, and the price per acre was half what the city had paid for other properties in the area.

"What is the cost that would be acceptable for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens?" Sammoury asked.

Closing costs on the contract would come to $822,000, none of it from the general fund.

Several members of "Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont" called the contract a betrayal, saying that it would undermine their petition drive to get a citywide fracking ban on the November ballot. Among other things, the contract states that TOP will not sue the city for strengthening its rules unless the city amends its laws or charter in a way that "prevents or prohibits the company from engaging in oil and gas operations."

"Do you really want to be remembered as the Judas Council, the Brutus Brigade, the Delilah Delegation?" resident Michael Belmont asked.

Resident Tim Remple noted that while the well sites were keeping well away from homes and schools, one of the sites was just 400 feet from the Sandstone Ranch soccer fields.

"There's a zillion kids out there," he said.

"Our Longmont" plans to wrap up its petition drive Friday, with public signing sessions from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at Vance Brand Municipal Airport and from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Kanemoto Park.

Rademacher said the city was trying to get the Sandstone Ranch fields designated an "outside activity area" by the state. If successful, that would impose a 350-foot setback, which the well site is already outside.

Sammoury said he thought a fracking ban was fated to be killed by the courts, which had previously ruled that a city could not ban all drilling within its limits. Bagley, who also served on a statewide oil and gas task force, said he thought the TOP agreements gave the city the best deal possible.

"This is where you grab your money at Black Hawk and leave the table ahead," he said. +

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